The Afflicted Women: The Salem Witch Trials

When one usually thinks about the Salem Witch Trials, they tend to imagine the colonial rabble, often male, accusing and indiscriminately burning women who they saw as witches at the stake. This idea is proven false when we look at the records and realize that the vast majority of women accused of being witches were being accused by other women. Woman is Salem were more likely than men to be both the accused and the accusers due to the culture that revolved around women in which they were very often upkeepers of morals in their communities. This put them at constant blows with those who didn’t conform to the traditional rules in place in their Puritan society. Through this we can understand that the reason why women were more often both the
accused and the accuser was because of the social tensions between the two brought about by an overly strict religious lifestyle.
As we look at the social tension that caused the Salem witch trial and influenced women to become the main actor and target we must first look at what led to the “Afflicted” girls.
The “Afflicted” girls were mostly teenagers and many had seemed to suffered from some sort of PTSD. Many of the afflicted people had been refugees from an ongoing Indian war and many had been mentally scarred from it, they made references of seeing the Devil in the shape of an Indian or nightmares about Indians (Mary Beth Norton on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 (youtube)). During the time of the Salem witch trial, this Indian war was evidently still going on and may have triggered memories in those “afflicted” from the nature of the attacks, “The Indians skulked, they lurked, they flitted, they committed atrocities—and they vanished. “Our men could see no enemy to shoot at,” a Cambridge major general lamented.” (Stacy Schiff, "Inside the Witches of Salem”). These girls most likely used the trials to empower themselves in the face of these dangers as stated in the essay on Mercy Lewis, “later in the game, it seems that perhaps a desperate need for social empowerment and belonging were strong underlying motives” (Essay on Mercy
Lewis).
Once the accusations began it was difficult to stop them, as it was soon realized that the best way to survive the trials was to plead guilty of witchcraft and accuse someone else so that you would be kept alive for the trial (“You’re Accused”). This precedent came around after Sarah Good accused Sarah Osburne of withcraft as Tituba had done to her (Essay of Sarah Good). Many took advantage of this as a way to empower themselves and targeted those who had made them feel powerless before through the Puritan tradition. Throughout the trial, three-fourths of the accused were women and most of those were vocal on their disregard for Puritan society (Taking Sides, 61). This could have been seen as a way of gaining power through fear in the public and bringing that into the judicial system for control. This would’ve played with the constant fear that Satan was actively acting in the world and perhaps twisting the minds of the people or sending witches to erode their strong moral code ("Causes of Witchcraft Hysteria in Salem, Salem Witchcraft Trials 1692.") Targeting those who were known to had dissent from the majority opinion on what is proper morals made it easier for those accusing to gain this strength. Some women who accused others used this to target the patriarchal society such as Sarah Churchill who went on to accuse her abusive employer, George Jacobs Sr. of wizardry for which he was executed (Essay on Sarah Churchill).
In all, the Salem witch trial was an attack on the strict social norms and lack of rights women had under the Puritan faith.
This shows that one of the main issues that started the Salem witch trial was the ease at which Puritanism allowed for the antagonization of women. Woman who accused did so for the empowerment in such a society and those who were accused were due to the easiness to connect their actions to a falling out with Puritan morals. Through it, those who were voiceless were able to become front and center to a power they never had and sway the actions of the
region.